Google Street View Just Another Example of Tech Company Invasion of Privacy

The idea that Romney will fall behind in technological ability without announcing his vice presidential pick via smartphone really misses the point. Both candidates will use technology extensively during the continuing campaign. Both candidates employ extensive precinct-by-precinct polling and use their results to allocate campaign dollars accordingly. I am however, glad that Condoleezza Rice has turned down the job; she is significantly overqualified.

Smartphone companies extensively collect, aggregate, retain, and sell private information, Examples are BluKai, but with a huge list, NetSavy.com becomes the quintessential aggregator of the aggregators. Companies like Google have been known to use their Google Street View vehicles to collect and store passwords and personal router setup configurations. Cellphone corporations routinely store and sell GPS searches (to ostensibly display nearby vendors who sell that for which you search), but their for-profit spying doesn’t stop there. All installed applications are known by them, as well as all browser search terms, and that doesn’t even to begin to include the virtual alphabet soup of government entities whose surveillance goes too far in the name of national security or terrorist intervention — NSA, DARPA, CIA, FBI, WH, DHS, DOC, DHHS, SEC, IRS; the list will only continue to grow! Some organizations however, genuinely defend privacy rights such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation or the American Civil Liberties Union.

Foreign governments also spy (Of course! Who doesn’t deny this truth?) on the U.S. internal and international interests. Israel spies on Iran and vice-versa. Those who trumpet and champion their anti-spying accomplishments are a lot like the Iranians whose “bluster” is just that and rings hollow to anyone who has an independent mind.

To use a few well-worn clichés, at the end of the day, in the end, and when it all comes down to it, there is little that can be done to stop it. The CBS show, “Person of Interest,” is far more realistic than many realize!

Economics junkie. I believe that while true freedom cannot be suborned by government, it can be, and is currently, over-legislated. As a privacy advocate, I don't share much in the way of personal life details. I allow my commentary here to stand on its own merits--unsupported by pontification of my expertise. I am a conservative centrist and am a strong supporter of capitalism and free trade.